>> The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original
>> You're watching "Here& Now". 2024 Election Coverage.
>> This just in, we can now call the political ads are using
artificial intelligence to push their agenda.
>> But the political playbook is still the same. I'm Frederica
Freyberg tonight on "Here& Now". Election season means a battle
over the airwaves in political ads, which now include
artificial intelligence. And as the political climate has become
so embattled, social studies teachers are being pressured not
to teach about the electoral system. Then surge at the
southern border has led to a crackdown on asylum seekers. We
follow one man's journey from Cameroon to Wisconsin and deaths
from overdose. Finally appear to be abating. We look at how local
communities are addressing the problem head on. It's "Here&
Now" for September 27th. >> Funding for here and Now is
provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS.
Wisconsin. to spend $423 million on
campaign ads in Wisconsin this year, with $60 million in ads
for the presidential race alone reserved for airtime between now
and Election Day, we may be used to attack ads stretching the
truth or twisting facts, but a new concern comes with the
growing use of artificial intelligence, or AI to create an
entirely new false reality. Here and now, senior political
reporter Zach Schultz has the story.
connoisseur of watch just about any local newscast in Wisconsin.
And when the station cuts to break, many of the commercials
will be campaign ads. Thanks a lot, Khaba.
>> Politico will occupy a large percentage of our available
inventory between now and the election, and have, for many
months. manager of Wbay-tv in Green Bay
in a purple state, campaign ads are the best way to reach the
last few voters who haven't already made up their minds.
>> Well, let's be honest, the majority of the public is
already decided the way that they're going to vote, and these
ads are just over that little really undecideds in the middle.
>> Most of the controversies over campaign ads come when one
side demands their opponent retract an ad due to
inaccuracies or technicalities. Lavin says TV stations have
lawyers to deal with those issues.
because number one, I would rather the other side. If
there's falsehoods in an ad, the other side has every bit of
right to actually answer those by buying more ads, right?
>> A new concern over ads has to do with the growing use of
artificial intelligence, or AI, to generate images that look
real. Earlier this year, the legislature passed a bill that
requires any campaign ad using AI to include that information.
>> Any time they're using any type of AI, they're supposed to
disclose it. $1,000 penalty, but that penalty
would be paid by the group running the ad. An amendment to
the bill made sure broadcasters are not liable if AI is used and
not disclosed. >> There is a bit of
responsibility on the side of the broadcasters, but it's also
extremely hard to police. >> Mike Wagner is a professor of
journalism at the University of Wisconsin who has studied the
use of AI in political speech. >> How can they know for sure
the video was AI generated? How can they know for sure the
script was AI generated? >> Lavin says so far, there's no
evidence of any AI in campaign ads.
place, I have not seen or heard an ad that has used that
disclaimer yet. So either it's if it's being used, nobody's
disclosing it or they've determined that that the
penalties are so high that they're just not going to use AI
to determine it. >> I think the real danger with
AI in this election is not in campaign advertisements. It's in
social media posts that go viral.
of this using AI as a boogeyman. >> So something happens in the
other side says, oh, that must be. I can't possibly be real.
>> In August, Kamala Harris held a rally at an airport hangar in
Detroit, Michigan. Donald Trump falsely claimed photos of the
event used AI to make the crowd look bigger.
>> I spoke at that rally. I spoke to all 15,000 of those
people. They are real. >> Garlin Gilchrist is
Michigan's lieutenant governor. about that crowd that he had to
find a way to try to delegitimize it. And so by
and saying it was artificial intelligence to think that's all
he knows how to do is play on people's fears.
>> Wagner says beyond making AI a boogeyman, there's another way
I can be abused. >> The other is that a candidate
picks up on a post that uses AI and treats it as true, which has
also happened where a former President Trump shared
information that Taylor Swift had endorsed him, which she had
not. have affected the race for
president. Taylor Swift later endorsed Kamala Harris. When we
fight, we win. Who has proven her large crowds are real?
>> What a crowd. You know, Donald Trump says Democrats can
only have large crowds because of AI.
>> I wasn't even involved in the biggest lie of the campaign so
far. >> They're eating the dogs.
>> When Donald Trump falsely claimed Haitian immigrants were
stealing pets and eating them in Springfield, Ohio, the source of
the misinformation was a Facebook post. No AI involved at
all. >> So when these kinds of things
happen to especially when the candidates themselves pick it up
and share it, those things are going to take on a life of their
own in really remarkable and fast ways that are hard to
regulate. misinformation are the same as
the audience for campaign ads, low information voters who are
paying attention at the last minute are often susceptible to
the messages because they're new to them.
attention to the race, and these to misinformation.
is the same as it's always been. >> There is so much
disinformation out there, could be in these campaigns,
could be spreading, spreading disinformation. I think it's up
to the individual voter to determine what's actually the
truth. Zach Schultz for "Here& Now"
>> Despite a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in July that says
absentee drop boxes are fully legal, they still remain a point
of contention. Since then, some local clerks around the state
have decided they will not allow their residents to use an
absentee ballot drop box for the November election, saying they
are not secure but one city mayor took matters into his own
hands. This week, donning a hardhat and workers gloves,
Wausau Mayor Doug Denney wheeled the city's only drop box away
from its position outside city Hall, but not before posing for
pictures to, quote, memorialize the event. Denney now faces a
legal investigation as he is not an election official, and this
was not a decision approved by anyone but himself. He maintains
he did not break the law, as campaigning toward Election day
reaches a fever pitch and most of the world is talking about
it. In nearly half of Wisconsin schools, teachers are being
restricted from discussing U.S. elections. The Wisconsin Council
for the Social Studies is pushing back its president and
Shorewood Middle School social studies teacher and 2023 teacher
of the year. Sarah Kopplin is here. And thanks very much for
being here. >> Thank you for having me.
>> So your council conducted a survey of teachers on this. What
did that survey find? >> So we have a monthly
newsletter that we send to our membership. And full disclosure,
we don't have every teacher in the state of Wisconsin who does
teach social studies. As members of our organization. Currently,
we are working to change that, though, but 42% of the
respondents in our membership who filled out the survey said
that they've experienced scenarios where their district
administration so either their principal or perhaps even their
school board has placed limitations upon them for
teaching of current events or the election in this upcoming
school year. Also, I was recently at the Teaching About
Elections conference at UW-Madison and a reporter asked
the crowd of educators if they had experienced such things in
their districts, and every hand in the crowd went up. There was
well over 100 educators there. So this is something that we see
as an organization. We also asked a similar question at our
conference last March and received that type of
overwhelming response. >> So what is behind the
restrictions and complaints on the part of parents say?
>> So the things that we hear from educators around our state
in terms of parent complaints are our teachers are conducting
units of study where students are learning about how elections
work. You know, how votes are cast and counted, how the
electoral electoral college hearing from their students that
when they come home, that this type of topic is being discussed
and then immediately complain to principals or school board
members that their children are being indoctrinated with
political ideology. So that's something we've heard a lot of.
And this is not a scenario where an educator is talking about
their partizan politics. It's just simply giving students
opportunities in classrooms to learn about how our democratic
system works. We also have heard from educators that have had
administrators that will just say to them, we don't want you
having any discussions in your classrooms about the election at
all, or any classroom discussions about current
events. It's too controversial. We don't want parent complaints,
which makes it very difficult for social studies educators
when this is related to our state standards and also
partially related to some of the statutory requirements that we
have in Wisconsin to teach social studies.
>> So our teachers pushing a political agenda, in any case,
in classrooms. >> So I have yet to come across
an educator that tells their students what their political
agenda is, you know, as an educator, you are bound by
policies in your school district where most districts have
similar policies that they purchase from. And policy
writing consortium. And it basically says that as an
educator, you should not give any partizan political
viewpoints in your classroom. But simply talking about
politics, how politics work, or what issues are taking place in
our political sphere is enough. In the current political
atmosphere to make parents and administrators feel like
going on in the classroom. The term of indoctrination is thrown
around quite frequently. I have yet to find an educator, though
that is telling any of their students their political
ideology. >> Are these restrictions
happening in your own district? >> They're not happening in my
district. I feel pretty fortunate to teach in a district
where not only the community, but our school board and our
district administrators at the building levels have been very
supportive of social studies education. They have been
supportive of us meeting our state standards, which require
to student students to engage in their own inquiry and also to
engage in developing civil discourse skills. So learning
about current events and having current events discussions,
learning about the election is something that is valued in the
school district that I work in. >> And in your mind, why is it
important for students to learn about government and elections?
>> Well, our state legislature believes that it is. There's a
statute that actually talks about how important that is. And
it requires that to happen. The school board should provide an
educational plan for that to take place in school districts.
It's also part of our state standards. But more importantly,
I think it's really important for the future of our democracy
that our students understand how our government works, you know,
what are the parts of our government? What are their
powers and limitations? What are the rights and responsibilities
that citizens have in this country? And with that being
said, how as a person who is part of your community or if you
are a citizen as well, how do you engage to ensure that you
are making a positive impact on your neighbors? And how can you
have a voice to be somebody who is civically engaged? One of our
state standards says that Wisconsin students will learn
how to be civically engaged. And that's really important because
we want our future generations to be able to be strong leaders,
strong problem solvers and people that will strengthen and
improve the democracy and the country that we have, that we
have here. >> We leave it there. Sarah
Kopplin thanks very much. Thank you. Turning to the southern
border, a temporary solution to deter a surge of illegal
crossings at the US-Mexico border may become more permanent
as Republicans have made immigration a central issue in
the presidential election. Political pressure has mounted
for Democrats to address the issue. An executive order issued
in June from President Joe Biden severely limited the number of
people who can seek asylum at the border. Immigration
advocates fear the policy deters people with legitimate asylum
cases who are fleeing their home country for fear of persecution.
"Here& Now" student, journalist Jane McCauley, follows the
journey of one such man who risked it all.
>> At this point, I was thinking, maybe I make a wrong
decision of coming here. >> Kaul Augustine had two
choices he could either face arrest, seeking asylum at the
U.S. Southern border, or face political violence in his home
country of Cameroon. >> They look at us like second
class citizens in your own countries. Simply because of
what? Because you can't speak French whatsoever.
of a violent civil war known as the Anglophone Crisis. Thousands
of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
>> I said, look, we cannot be in our own country and be treated
as second class citizens. They go down the street, they start
protesting. You know, we want our rights to be restored.
>> The country's internal conflict is a remnant of French
and British colonization. It's been decades of discriminatory
policies from the French speaking government against the
country's English speaking regions. More and more people
like Goure have stood up against the government, risking arrest
and torture. Gutierrez wife and daughter assumed he had died in
detention. What they didn't know is that he escaped from Nigeria
and fled to South America, starting in Ecuador and
traveling north through the Darien Gap, one of the most
dangerous places in the world. Over thousands of miles and
through eight countries, he reached Mexico.
>> I look like I'm a kind of different human being that come
from separate, different world. You know, I was and there was a
lot of police discrimination. I said, oh, this is not simply
what I'm running away from. >> Walz journey was harrowing,
taking a toll both physically and emotionally.
>> I have not talked to my family for all the time I was
traveling at that time. And, you know, the stress and the emotion
was going on. >> Finally, he arrived at the
U.S. Mexico border. I've been through to get to
cross this very border is it was really. When I think of what
I've been through to get to this point, it was I can't even I
can't even find the right word to describe it. When I got into
the US immigration, I thought, I am safe. I felt relieved.
>> That relief, however, turned to regret as he questioned if
leaving for the U.S. was the right decision.
>> When they took me to the to the detention, I said I didn't
commit any crime. Why are they, like, taking me to this place?
>> He thought seeking asylum meant being protected in the
custody of the United States. Instead, he was arrested like a
criminal. I've never committed any crime
in my life. Apart from being apart from being protected in my
home country. >> And they told him nothing.
>> I thought I was still in Chicago because I didn't even
know where I was. >> It was weeks later he found
out he was in a federal detention facility in Dodge
County, Wisconsin. This is a humanitarian issue. Erin Barbato
is director of the UW Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic. Ngwa
says everything changed when he met her.
because they have no other choice. We have laws that allow
people to seek protection here when they will be persecuted or
have been persecuted in their home country.
>> Seeking asylum is one issue, but proving your case is
another. His witness accounts attest to the chaos in his
country. >> He also wears scars on his
body that we were able to, demonstrate were linked to the
persecution that he suffered from the government.
>> Obviously, our backgrounds are really different.
>> Wittke Toni and Mark Swanby met Ngwa through Barbato, but we
had so much in common, like values and belief systems and
all that. Guo went to live with them after leaving Dodge County
Jail on parole. They became his American parents, giving him a
place to call home. >> Having Gua in our life now
has been a real blessing to us. You know, we've inherited
another family, if you will, or found more family. I'd like to.
>> I know you love to listen to stories.
>> After four long years, Gu's wife Stella, and then five year
old daughter, Ann received their documents to come to the U.S.
>> I was just like, is this for real? Am I here? I was in shock
when I saw him. I was so happy to make a life here in the U.S.
and what what they've been through and what they're going
through is just a hard thing. >> In June, Gua graduated from
UW lacrosse with a masters in Health care Administration.
After years of hardship, Gua received his asylum in 2021. Now
he's applying for U.S. citizenship. Stella and Ann
await their green cards. In the meantime, it means everything to
Gua to start a new life in Wisconsin.
your family to be united. I think we're really happy. And I
am looking forward to more amazing things for "Here& Now".
>> I'm Jane McCauley, reporting from Madison.
>> In health news, good news, the centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reports a more than 10% decline in drug deaths
this year for the first time after decades of steep
increases. Wisconsin mirrors the downward trend. There certainly
has been an all out push to save lives from law enforcement
interdiction efforts to harm reduction efforts like Narcan on
the ground locally, the Medical College of Wisconsin also helps
communities conduct overdose fatality reviews to look
holistically at the victims, to help others stay alive until
they can get treatment. La Crosse County has been
conducting such reviews since 2018. Pelosi love is from the
county health department. She joins us now. And Paula, thanks
a lot for being here. >> Thank you so much. It's an
honor to have this discussion. >> So he's a la Crosse County.
Also seen a reduction in overdose deaths has as has been
the case nationally and statewide.
>> Well, our rate in 2023 was the highest that it's ever been.
So, you know that was end of 2023. When we're looking at 2024
we're behind the numbers that we saw last year at this time. So
we're hopeful that the total numbers will be less than, you
know, 2023. But we don't know that yet. We've still got a few
months of 24 to get through. >> When you're conducting an
overdose fatality review, what are you looking at in that
person's life? >> We're looking at early
substance use. We're also looking at trauma that they may
have experienced. You know, were they a party to a home where
other substance use was going on? Did they have particularly
difficult schooling? Did they move a lot? You know, did were
they a part of a broken family, that people may have heard of
the term ACS, which is adverse childhood experiences. And we
know that those there's, there's like ten different experiences
and we know those experiences make children's lives that much
more difficult. So we look for that. We aren't calling them
aces, but we look at the growing up history of the person. If we
have access to that, we also look at how much they moved.
There might have been medical problems that people have had.
We've had several people who have had head injuries, and we
know that that's a concussion. We know that that also impacts
thinking and coping abilities that young people have. And then
we look at involvement with, with treatment, law enforcement,
if they've been incarcerated at all. We're looking at all of
those kinds of things, to look at opportunities where,
prevention couldn't be walking down that same path in
the future. >> Give us a sense of who makes
up the team. >> So the team is a combination
of there's probably 12 to 15, professionals and community
group. So law enforcement, we have someone from the judicial
system. We have some treatment, people who are involved in
treatment. When we have people from a, a school setting,
whether it's K-12 or post-secondary education, we
educational setting as well, we have have, a pharmacist who we
can consult with whenever we need to. Our medical examiner
and then fire department staff, who are often the first
responders or respond when, an overdose. 911 call is called in
within the city of la Crosse. >> So you spoke to some kinds of
changes that have been effected coming out of these reviews.
What's an example of one of those tangible changes?
>> One of the changes is a jail release kit that's provided to
all people who have been discharged from the county jail.
We were noticing in doing and conducting reviews that within
the first couple of months after getting out of jail, if the
individual returned to their former lifestyle, they were at a
great risk of overdose. And so a jail release kit was something
that was a was put together by some of the groups that or
agencies that are represented on the team. And so it includes
Narcan. It includes, a rescue mask. So for providing rescue
breathing, that's one example, another example is,
acknowledging that we might have a particularly, particularly,
contaminated, supply of drugs in our community because the
thought now is that there's no pure substance, even substances
like meth, are often laced with fentanyl or xylazine in the
community. describes reducing the stigma of
drug addiction as an important prong. Why
>> I think it's important to talk about it in the community
and not have people look down on folks who are using substances.
And in order to do that, we need to talk about it openly in the
community, people sometimes have bad feelings about harm
reduction. Well, why would you prevent people from overdosing?
Because it's about saving their lives until they're ready to
take that next step towards treatment. I also think that we
need to acknowledge that many people, not all, but many people
who are, attracted to substance use are attracted because
they're struggling with some other condition, something else
that has a lot of stigma in our community and probably state and
nationwide is mental health. I also think that we need to talk
about, people who overdose in our community aren't just
unsheltered people. They are people who have jobs, who have
homes, might have college educations. They just are caught
in that cycle. That addictive cycle of substance use and that
drive, that addiction is really, really strong. And so they might
want to quit. But it's one more, one more experience with a
substance. And that might be the experience that has the fentanyl
in it. That then is leads to them having an unintentional
overdose. >> Paula.
very much. Thanks for your work. >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit
our website at PBS wisconsin.org and then click on the news tab
to see all of our election coverage. Visit Wisconsin
Vote.org. That's our program for tonight I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a good weekend. >> Funding for "Here& Now" is
provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS.